Previously I have had some remarks from opponents about the pips. "I hate playing against those", and such. Nothing unsettling. This time, I had 2 players stating that "I won't make any official complaint, but strictly your bat is illegal." I asked them what rule they based that claim on, and they just went "everybody knows that there is a 4 mm limit". Oh, well... I have inverted max thickness rubber and LP with 0,5mm sponge, but my blade is near 20mm thick. Confronted them with that, and they still maintained (independently of one another) the attitude that "it's illegal, but I'll allow it".

After the matches on Saturday I talked to the appointed referee for the event. Surprisingly, he also claimed that my bat was illegal, "but at your level nobody will care" (or something to that effect). He agreed that both rubbers were OK, but the blade lacked the stamp of approval from ITTF. (!) I asked him to provide the actual rule, and he noted the "Re-Impact Perfect" name and said he would have to come back to me the next day. Come Sunday, he said he hadn't gotten any further, but maintained the same attitude as those two players, "illegal, but just play with it anyway". (I could of course have asked him to examine every bat of every player, and see if he could come up with one single "ittf approved" blade. I chose to leave that to a later time...)

Wow that's pretty poor form Sounds like these guys would not admit it even if they found out you were right.

Wow that's pretty poor form Sounds like these guys would not admit it even if they found out you were right.

I guess so. It was still a friendly disagreement, though, but I agree that it's bad form. When you accuse someone of breaking the rules, you should be ready to back that accusation up with the actual rule. More so when you are the tournament referee (although he just responded to my question which was triggered by those other half-accusations, "off the record" more or less). So while I agree that it's bad form, we are still friends.

vanjr wrote:

Missing the great mind of Keme updates!

Thanks for the heads up. I guess I have had little to report lately, so I didn't ...Also another put-down: My main bat is gone AWOL since that series weekend. I thought it had gotten mixed in with the club gear, but no luck. Not in the "lost&found" box in the sports centre, and the people I asked at the host club have not found it.

Bright spots in all this: The Barath is better suited for me than the first tests suggested, so I find that I play just as good with that. Attacks better w. pips than the old blade, but more spin sensitive with inverted. Adjusting to that... If I continue to improve physically, I may even go back to dual inverted. Not until next season, though...

Our TT club is finally terminated. With 6 members, it was to small to justify a membership in the national sports association. I have been whipping a dead horse FAIL...

A neighbor club is taking over the equipment and funds. (This is in accordance with sports association and club regulations, no foul play involved.) They have decided to start a TT section. That club has their own hall, so practice times are highly flexible. We will be playing in squash courts, close enough to the ITTF space requirement for national league. (9,75m x 6,4m with 5,64m clear height, vs. ITTF's 10m x 5m x 3m.) That's large enough that we have room for two tables in each court for most training purposes (and more informal competitions).

So my motivation, which has been dropping steadily for the last year and a half, is now up again. The boy has grown taller than me, but I still beat him. (With the training hours available, he will soon improve beyond me, I guess.) Receiving club is receiving us with the intention of lifting the sport to what it was 40 years ago (when the club had 100+ players and was one of the largest in our part of the country.)

Failure turning into a bright future, it seems. Still, the budding players, supposedly only turned away because of the training hours, have to show. There is a "come as you are" welcome night in early September, where I and the TT-management from the club board will receive the players.

Intro night was a week ago. 10 players doesn't sound like much, but with the joy and motivation they showed I am optimistic.

First regular training tomorrow. We have 2 squash courts and 4 tables. Starting with the young ones (expecting 4-5 from the intro session, and then some), simple challenge of bouncing ball on bat, and then some table exercises. An hour or so should suffice. I only hope that the loaner bats are not too heavy. (My daughter will be the youngest, and she has her own. I think they are going to be fine.) If anyone have other fun exercises suitable for total beginners (7-9 yrs.), I could use some suggestions.

For the more experienced, some known and some new, I have what I need. A small set of exercises and then there will be match play. One very good tennis player needs to adjust his moves slightly...

Bright spot: It looks like there will be a couple of girls too. I hope the trend continues. Most importantly, we need to have more players. Aside from that, with boys only there tends to be a bit of mucking about, but they usually get their act together when the girls are around...

Seeing as you're playing on squash courts, if anyone treads on a ball, it won't be useless - you'll just have a squash ball!I wouldn't try many "drills" as such, but I'd try and get them doing a basic forehand & backhand drive, as well as serving consistently.Just enough to get them playing a few matches against each other - the idea of competition will keep the excitement levels up! Good luck!

We're full now. Space only reserved for 4 tables (also, we have only 4 useable tables), and yesterday we had 8 players in the beginners' and 6 in the "elite" section.

Training is fun again. I'm motivating the kids, and then I meet people who play at my own level so I get some useful training myself. Most of the administrative work is taken care of by someone else.

So, as I suspected, terminating the TT club rescued TT as a sport locally. At least that's how it looks right now.

One small regret, though. The girls don't come back. There was a few on the first night, but on the two we had after that, only my daughter was there. (She didn't have much choice, 6 years old and nobody else at home to look after her. I think she wants to be there with us, though. At least that is what she says.)

There was one young girl and two mothers who looked like they were having fun on the first night. Of course they may still return. Then again, it may be the setting. Or it may be something I do, or don't. It is quite possible that I need help, so I ask in particular you ladies out there:

Is there something a (male?) coach tends to do (or not do) that puts you off?

Oh, well, trouble around formal issues (transferring players from nonexistent club to a club which is not yet registered with the national TT association), so regionals was a "no go". Still, the group of players is fairly stable, a few of them actually do the routines as instructed, and they are all improving. Having fun now, just need to test our skills against neighbor clubs. A good hour's drive to the nearest, so it takes a bit of organizing. Some day soon...

Training again yesterday, ignoring doctor's orders. Knee hurts so bad today that I can barely walk. Anyway, I had fun and also helped others with their training, so it was worth it, I guess.

EJ vibes stirring again. I bought a blade from MDP's holiday sale. First impression: Balsa Basher works as advertised. I glued on some rubbers I had lying around: a fresh Palio CJ8000 "Biotech" 2mm and an old sheet of DF 1615 with thin sponge (0,3mm, I think). Didn't expect too much from the pips (bad past experience with 1615), but I was pleasantly surprised. Grip is slightly better than with my usual CK531a (which I have on a Re-Impact Dr. Barath blade) so I can use LP actively for spin, while "passive deception" is less prominent. This suits me just fine. Nice balance of speed vs. control with inverted too. Looping (which is a problem with some balsa blades) is certainly possible, to the extent I was able to test yesterday. On hard flat hits this blade is really fast (and this is with modest rubbers). I like it. Good job, MDP!

Been a while since I updated this thread. A few developments to report.

Myself:Bright spot: Knee surgery in April last year. Still wobbly and sometimes painful (reminds me that I'm alive), but shaved and stapled-up meniscus seems to hold.

Equipment:Balsa blades have been my main focus for a while since I returned to the sport some 8 years ago. Started with Yasaka Synergy, continued with Galaxy T-11+ and a few Re-Impact blades. In particular my first Re-Impact blade convinced me. FAILURE. Lately I have tried a couple of slower blades with "plain" wood, and finding that I play better when I do more of the work myself. I also have failed to avoid the EJ pit.

Think I have settled now: Galaxy EQ-1 with Hurricane 3 and Friendship 802-40. Really slow and with fantastic control on passive strokes, and with a solid effort I get all the speed and spin I need.

The club:A few years of slow membership development seems to accelerate, or perhaps it is just the paused soccer season. Anyway, a few of the good players are back too, and we're all having fun and getting better.

"TT" has been away for a while, but now she is back again on a regular schedule. She is better than any of us locals (was at one time around #300 on the world ranking), and also has a keen eye for the talents. She's started multiball coaching sessions for the most motivated of our young players, and they are improving fast. After the first session, the kids approached me, wide eyed, and wanted to know "everything" about her. "Is she better than you?", "How good is she?", "Can we do this again?", etc.

With the development the kids are seeing now, some of them may even want to compete against other clubs (which, in the last player/parent meeting we had, was more or less dismissed as a "silly idea").

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